Pushing Bluetooth out to 12 Kilometers
Bluetooth is a short-range protocol thatβs great for peripherals and finding your keys, but itβs limited range is mainly a product of how itβs usually implemented. A recent video from [nktbuilds] demonstrates this by extending its range out to 12 kilometers, or around 7.5 miles.
The secret is twofold: one is the antenna, a parabolic unit that captures far more than the dinky dipole in your phone. The other is a very sensitive receiver with a much lower noise floor. What you wonβt see here is any extra power than you get stock out of one of those generic coin-sized Bluetooth tracker tags. Itβs kind of obvious, in retrospect: grab more signal, lower your noise floor, and get a better result. Still, it certainly wasnβt obvious it would work out to 1200 m, and itβs an impressive feat by [nktbuilds]. Weβre going to have to keep it in mind next time we lose our keys.
Of course this doesnβt mean you should jump to Bluetooth for distance communications. Youβre still better off sticking with something like LoRA for that, especially since itβs good to hundreds of miles if you can get line-of-sight β or even tens of thousands with the right setup.